1. The object of lexicology. The problem of the word

The term lexicology comes from greec (lexis – word, logea - science) – a science about words or the study of the word as a fundamental unit of a language. English lexicology is a brunch of linguistics, which deals with the english vocabulary and properties (or characteristic features of words and word groups). The english vocabulary is such a great aggregate of words and word groups, different in their meaning and in their origin and functions that it must be treated from different points of view. That is why lexicology falls into 5 parts, namely:

-etymology (origin of words)

-lexicography (about compiling dictionaries)

-word-building (structure of words)

-phraseology (set expressions)

-smantics (word meanings)

The term vocabulary means the system, formed by all the words, that the language possesses. The vocabulary of the language is not chaotic, it is systematic and all the words forming it constitute a structure set of innterdependent and interelated elements. Thus the term system denotes a coherent homogeneous whole, constituted by interdependent and interelated elements.

The term word denotes the basic unit of a given language expressing a notion or several notions by means of a certain language system. A word consists of a particular group of sounds and a meaning, associated with them and a particular grammatical employment (применение). Thus the word is a semantic, grammatical and phonological unit.

There are 4 fundamental levels of a language which make up 4 systems:

-phonems

-morphems

-words & word groups

-sentenses

Each unit of a higher level is made up of at least 1 unit of a lower order. On the acoustic level words consist of phonems. Phonems are the smallest meaningless units of a language. They have no meaning of their own. They carry no information, they are sounds. But they form morphems. Morphems are the smallest units of the language, which have meaning. They form words. And words form sentences.

In contrast to sounds words are 2-sided. They have both a certain form and certain content called meaning. The meaning of a linguistic unit, a word, is a reflection in the human consciousness of objects, facts, qualities, actions, phenomena for which a given sound complex serves as material expression (звуковая оболочка). The word exists in the language as a system of its grammatical forms. The system of inflexional forms or slovoforms of a word is called paradigm

-a day, days, day’s, days’

Thus the word has not only lexical meaning, but grammatical meaning also. Linguistic relationships between words are classified into paradigmatic and syntagmatic. On the paradigmatic level the word is studyed in its relationship with other words in the vocaabulary system. Syntagmatic relationships are based on the liner charactered speech. They are the relationships which the words have when they are used in sentenses.

The aim of lexicology is to give a systematic description of the english word stock, its etymological pecularities and its classification, the developement of the vocabulary, the semantic relations of the words, laws that govern its replenishment (пополнение).

The course of lexicology is inseparable from morphology, syntax, phonetics, stylistics on the one hand and from the history of a language on the other.

Language as a social phenomenon is connected with thinking and with the social life of the speech community which uses this language. Language directly and immediately reacts to changes insocial life. That’s why its general properties can be understood only connection with social history, the history of the society which uses the language. This is overparticular importance for lexicolofy. As in the words of a language are reflected, recordered and fixed the results of men’s knowledge of the world. That is why language is the basic cheef and most important means of communication in human society. The study of the changes of meaning in different words shows that the meaning of words reflects the changes that are taking place in life. Thus the word industry ment “diligence” originally. The word democracy up tu the 19^th century ment “the mob (толпа) rule”.

The drestic (коренные) changes that have taken place in the meanings of all these words reflect the changes in the material and social life of the society. Thus the language developes constantly and its system exists in a state of this developement. That’s why the language can be viewed in 2 ways and studyed by means of 2 approaches. That’s historical (diachronical) approach and discriptive (synchronical) approach. These 2 approaches can’t be separated and understood without one another because they are independent. The 1^st approach studyes the historical developement of the language and synchronic approach concentrates mainly on the present state of the english vocabulary.